


Intertwined Fates

by swordsandpen



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Might add more characters/relationships at some point, Parallel Universes, What if Jaime and Brienne never met when they did on the show?, and Jaime travels to this one?, angsty but i wanna try my hand at fluff also, in one other existing universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 08:31:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17321543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swordsandpen/pseuds/swordsandpen
Summary: During an expedition beyond the Wall, Brienne gets seriously injured and lays between life and dead. Jaime feels guilty because he could not save her in time and starts thinking about the impact they had on each others lives. What if their paths had never crossed? Has he, the not honorable Kingslayer, sent her on a dangerous and destructive path since the beginning? If he had a second chance at saving her, could he do it? The Gods send Jaime in a parallel universe to show him.





	Intertwined Fates

**Author's Note:**

> You might remember (or not) this fic from last fall JB week. Well, I ended up deleting it back then because I wasn't completely satisfied with it and I didn't feel like it got much response. I sincerely thank everyone that posted a comment the first time around! However, I plan on rewriting big chunks of what I posted last time and on reposting the fic. 
> 
> Hope you like it, though this chapter is short. It was inspired by something that happened to another OTP of mine. Felt like it was a good setting for JB as well. It was supposed to be a one-shot but...well, you know how it always goes. Thank you for reading!

At first, Jaime doesn't see or even hear her. They are tiny rocks drown in the sea of undead people. Dust being carried around by a flow of wind. Then, he sees it. A flash of sapphire blue shining brightly in the permanent dusk, through the sea of white, grey and brown. 

By now, daylight barely exists anymore and consists of a ray of grey appearing for a few hours by day. With time, his daylight, his glimpse of hope that a new day brings, has been these same blue eyes. She is in danger, he immediately notices it.

Five wights circles around her, tightening the threat step after step as they close any possible openings she could use. His heart skips a beat. His legs and arms seem to move instinctively before his brain can even register what is happening. He jumps in her direction, diving his sword through the first wight in front of him with surprising energy after hours of fighting. 

Then, through a second. A third. A fourth. 

He loses count, hanging solely on the thought he is getting closer and closer to her. Her hair sticks to her head with sweat as she rises Oathkeeper again, frowning, but impossible to tire. A weak ray of light hits her sword and reflects in blue on the steal. 

He will be here on time to help her.

A White Walker appears behind her, dangerously close, with its cold blue eyes and frost-colored skin. A victorious grimace twists its face. Its sword rises and rises as if to kiss the grey sky in some foreign war dance. It shines red, tainted with the blood of other victims from their side. Mocking the poor, weak humans attempting to win against them, the invincible army of the dead. 

What's worse is that Brienne is too busy killing the wights threatening her life to notice. She pulls her sword from the body of another wight and engages with the fourth one. Jaime dives his sword into a wight he barely even see. Battle sounds fill his ears. Steal clinks against steal. Horses neighs. Dying men scream in pain. Steals dives into flesh. Wights bones fall on the ground. 

He can't hear much anything else. Brienne won't, too. So, screaming a desperate warning won't be helpful. All he has left are his sword and his fighting skills. He yells her name anyway because he has nothing to lose except her. 

Then, he jumps to the next wight and fight as fast as he never did, even when he was at his best. He doesn't even watch these empty sack of bones falling on the ground, inoffensive. She's still too far away. He wishes one of these stupid dragons would appear out of nowhere and be useful, for once. Where was the mother of dragon and the King of the North when he truly needs them? 

Finally, Brienne rises her eyes. She notices the White Walker with his sword and ready to kill. But it's too late. 

He stands right beside her, so close yet not near enough when the sword pierces the delicate skin of the back of her neck. Her name falls off his lips in one last desperate cry. Her eyes widen, one last burst before crossing the thin line between life and death. Her body crumples on the ground, pale as snow. Red pools at her back and against the white snow. Astonishing and warm blue eyes become blurry with pain. 

He dives toward the White Walker responsible for her wounds in one last attempt to save her.

***  
He fails. 

They bring her back to Winterfell, to see a maester possibly capable of healing her, of saving her, something Jaime couldn't even do. She now lays in her chamber, lost in between life and death but hanging dangerously over this line. Because of some joke from the universe, Jaime finds himself responsible for hiding the artifact they were looking for back at the north of the Wall in the crypts of Winterfell. 

Jaime could not help himself but hate this dumb artifact at this moment. The object could be the secret to defeating the Night King, he is well aware of it.  
However, his Wench might die because they had to fucking go north of the Wall to find this stupid, stupid artifact. If she did, Jaime would never be able to forgive himself for not insisting Brienne stays at Winterfell or for not being able to find another way to protect her when she'd refused to do so. 

She might die because of him. She might die because she accidentally crossed his path one day when he was a prisoner of the Stark boy King. He had sent her on the dangerous quest to find the Stark girls with new armor and a Lannister sword. Valyrian swords, the only steel able to defeat the dead. He might as well have sent her directly to battle against the White Walkers. 

He had contaminated her pure, knightly soul with his rotten Kingslayer one and his stories about how greater good sometimes has to come before other oaths to Kings, Queens, and Ladies. After all, he is a Lannister and hated by most for one single heroic act. He had spent most of his life in love with his own twin sister before realizing she was using him. Perhaps this is something you never truly recover from. 

At the moment, even an artifact who might save the world is not worth it (oh, the scowls and the "don't be an idiot" he would have gotten from Brienne if she'd heard him). Would she still be alive and well if they'd never meet? Would she be happier and have a better life if he wasn't there to ruin it? She'd probably have found the Stark daughters still, brave and determined she is. 

For now, they decided to hide the artifact in the crypts of Winterfell for protection until they figure out what to do with it to win the war. Stupid, stupid artifact. Jaime growls in the dark, the emotions bubbling back to him, the compartmentalized walls he put up falling down in an instant. He tightens his grip on the artifact in mad frustration, and his fingers turn white. Maybe if he still had his two hands during the latest battle against the dead, he would have been able to save her.

Then, Jaime can't take it anymore. Fuck it. He throws the artifact at random. It hits some old and dark tomb somewhere in the dark (what else could it hit, though? It was the only fucking thing in this creepy place).

Jaime turns back and starts moving toward the entrance of the crypts when he sees white light from the corner of his eyes, coming from the direction he might have thrown the artifact to. Strange, he thinks. Intrigued, he walks back toward what looks like the source of the light and crouches down. The artifact lays on the ground, shining brightly with white light. Jaime reaches for the artifact and grabs it, but, as soon as he touches it, he starts feeling dizzy. Before he can even analyze what is happening, dark swallows him whole.


End file.
